It is a well known fact that a majority of people suffer from periodontal disease in varying degrees. Such disease is the result of the accumulation of plaque between the teeth and along the gum line, initially leading to inflamed gums or gingivitis, and later periodontitis, a condition marked by gum recession and ultimately, tooth loss.
To avoid, or at least alleviate, the accumulation of plaque, most dentist recommend that dental floss be used after each meal to offset the accumulation of plaque. While there are a large number of commercial packages for containing and dispensing dental floss, the great majority of these packages are intended to be maintained in a compartment in the bathroom, such as a medicine cabinet or a drawer. As a result, they are not intended to be portable and they are seldom carried by a person for use outside the home.
In Dolan U.S. Pat. No. 5,582,194, a portable floss package intended for a single use application is disclosed. The package consist of three overlapping panels, and a small length of dental floss which is maintained within the package by an adhesive to which both ends of the length of dental floss are attached. Thus, the length of dental floss is maintained completely within the confines of the package until it is used, at which time the single length of dental floss is pulled away from the adhesive and used, and the package is disposed of. Obviously, this type of packaging results in a substantial per use expense since each package is capable of only one use, and it is also impractical to the extent that a person using this type of dental floss packaging must carry a large number of single-use packages. A somewhat similar single used package of dental floss is also disclosed in Court U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,728, and in Corella U.S. Pat. No. 4,579,221. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,190,200 to Hammerlund, a recyclable dental floss dispenser is disclosed which includes a large three-dimensional box in which the dental floss is contained. The box is formed with front and back walls, two wide side walls and top and bottom walls, and a large closure flap and a hang tab that permits the package to be hung from a hook or the like. As a result, the package in Hammerlund is large and bulky, it is not pliable because of its box like shape, and it does not lend itself to being portable and easily carried in an a wallet or small handbag.
It is also been proposed to package a larger supply of dental floss in a casing which is similar in size and shape to a credit card. In Sherman U.S. Pat. No. 5,678,580, the supply of dental floss is wrapped around a core member which appears to be rigid, and the core member is slideably housed within a protective case and some form of a stop is provided in the casing to limit outward movement of the core and the floss wrapped around the core. Another type of credit card floss dispenser is disclosed in Endelson U.S. Pat. No. 4,327,755. In this dispenser, a plastic material is used to form a base panel having a peripheral ridge extending there around to define a rectangular well, and a top panel is attached to the peripheral ridge of the base panel to form a fully contained compartment within the interior of the package. A supply of dental floss is disposed within the enclosed compartment, and an end of the dental floss extends outwardly from the enclosed compartment through an opening so that a desired length of the dental floss can be pulled from the package and then cut using a cutter formed on one edge of the package. Other similar packages are disclosed in Endelson U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,881,560, 5,772,439, and 5,787,907.
While these credit card-type dispensers are relatively small and functional, they have the disadvantages of being very rigid and therefore less susceptible to good portability where some flexibility or resiliency is required, and, in general, it appears that they are relatively expensive to manufacture.